Thirteen-year-old Bryte, poor and homeless, ekes out an existence in the flats surrounding the lowest tier of the seven-tiered city of Tirat. Resourceful and courageous, she is determined to find a way to live on Tirbat's fifth tier, home of the wealthy father who rejected her mother and refuses to acknowledge her. Her ascent begins when she offers to serve as a guide for a young man and woman just arrived in Tirbat. Magically gifted, they open up to her an exciting but dangerous new world. The young man falls under the spell of the evil Lord Inver, whom he is forced to obey even to committing murder. Lord Inver later captures the young woman. Their rescue is up to Bryte. Instead of the ascent she has desired, Bryte must descend to the Dire Realms and carry the battle with Lord Inver to the very source of the evil power he wields.